A few things I’ve noticed and/or thought about this week.

SRDs Compared

I compared the online reading/use of the Cepheus Engine System Reference Document on the web version, the original PDF version, and a PDF of Moon Toad’s print version, using my iPad Mini.

Not surprisingly, the HTML version is simply easier to use on the iPad and on the computer. HTML resizes for screen size by its very nature better than PDFs. The other two documents are great, they are well-designed for print, but for older eyes like mine I find them a bit harder to use. I don’t really like having to constantly resize the PDF. Maybe it’s just me. Now, they are usable. I’m not saying they aren’t. They are both well-bookmarked. It is fairly easy to move to desired sections in the documents. It’s just the reading.

Full disclosure - I love all three versions. I understand that no one is getting rich off publishing these documents. They are pretty much doing a public service, which is much appreciated.

Stuff I like and stuff I want

I’ve got pretty much every version of Cepheus Engine, Classic Traveller, and both editions of Mongoose Traveller. Running my Classic Traveller campaign one thing I had to invent was a system for vehicle combat. So I invented one, and it worked really well, then I found Omer Golan-Joels vehicle combat stuff on his blog Den of the Lizard King as well as his versions in Cepheus Light and Cepheus Deluxe and some other systems. Mine is pretty good, but these other systems are all better. Not my fault. I was just getting started on all this!

But I’d like to see a vehicle combat system actually added to a base Cepheus Engine SRD. Given the importance of vehicle chases, combat, and dogfights in SF movies, it was kind of conspicuous in its absense from Classic Traveller. To me it should be part of the core of any SF RPG. Now, since it is all based off the Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition SRD, I have no idea if it is possible to add stuff. I’m just blabbering.

So I have downloaded the MS Word Version of the Samardan Press’s version as well as the entire HTML version available from GitHub. When I have an extra month in my life I’d like to add vehicle combat to a core SRD.

Skills

Thus far, comparing skills between Classic Traveller, the SRD, and other versions, in general I prefer the SRD as an improvement on Classic Traveller. I think they (Mongoose, I suppose) got it right in this version (Right for me, at least. To each his own). In particular, I like the way they adjusted the various weapon skills, other cascade skills, and the background and service skills. The addition of all service skills at level zero makes a lot of sense to me. I like that Engineering includes all the major ship systems. For me that is the right level of granularity.

To me, if you have Engineering-3, you are at Montgomery Scott Miracle-Worker level. You should be able to fix anything on the ship. How do I arrive at this conclusion? In the old Citizens of the Imperium supplement, the writeup of Darth Vader gives him Pilot-3. If Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is Pilot-3, then I feel that Engineer-3 should be Mr. Scott. Honestly, I kinda play it like this. Level-1 = bachelors degree. Level-2 = master’s degree. Level-3 = PhD. Anything over level 3 is super grandmaster overlord level (Vader is given Blade Combat -5 in CotI).

Well, I’m rambling here with my not-that-well-thought-out opinions.